Flybrix Lets Your Kids Build Drones Out Of LEGO Bricks

If you were one of those kids who built a LEGO car and tried to power it with a model rocket engine (only to see it blow sky-high half way up the driveway), then you know there are valuable lessons to be learned from wrecking LEGOs. The MIT, Caltec, and Madison grads behind Flybrix agree and, to prove it, they created a “crash-friendly” DIY LEGO drone that kids can have airborne (and wrecked) in under 15 minutes. In the process, they get STEM smart.

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Flybrix’s build-and-fly kits come with everything needed to launch a 4-, 6-, or 8-propeller drone with limited aviation knowledge and no tools, although you’re more than welcome to help out if you want. The LEGOs, propellers, motors, circuit board, even the pilot are in the box; just plug and play. You can even use the bricks already scattered around the house to build a giant jumbo drone and/or finally get that LEGO Millenium Falcon to literally fly. Advanced builders can also use the open-sourced software to tweak code and “adjust the settings and motor tuning.”

Once Han and Chewy are ready for liftoff (sans rocket engine, of course), the Flybrix is controlled via a Bluetooth smartphone app. Or, if you’d rather not hand over your iPhone every time your kid wants to litter the yard with LEGOs, the Deluxe version includes an R/C transmitter.